


Strike A Match

by sidneysid



Category: Ensemble Stars! (Video Game)
Genre: Bittersweet, Implied Sena Izumi/Tsukinaga Leo, M/M, One-Sided Attraction, One-sided Sena Izumi/Yuuki Makoto (Ensemble Stars!), Soulmate-Identifying Marks, izumi-centric
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-05
Updated: 2018-12-05
Packaged: 2019-09-11 21:07:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 841
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16860313
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sidneysid/pseuds/sidneysid
Summary: Izumi’s parents are soul mates. When his mark developed his mother bought him a bracelet to cover it, and Izumi dreamed about meeting his mark-match, his other half, the person that every tv show and movie and manga told him would love him unconditionally and perfectly.





	Strike A Match

Izumi’s parents are soul mates. When his mark developed his mother bought him a bracelet to cover it, and Izumi dreamed about meeting his mark-match, his other half, the person that every tv show and movie and manga told him would love him unconditionally and perfectly.

A few years later Izumi starts wearing a patch over his mark, a little square like a band-aid that matches his skin tone. The kind of thing that models wear, because he’s a model now. It stays on all day, even when he’s dancing, and eventually peeling it off at night and replacing it with a fresh one in the morning becomes second nature.

Izumi likes Makoto as soon as he meets him.

Izumi sees a hint of Makoto’s mark one day, between shots, because Makoto had been touching his patch all day and it had started to unpeel itself. The mark underneath kind of looks like Izumi’s, maybe, and Izumi hopes -

Makoto leaves.

Izumi tries not to think about what-ifs.

Izumi still thinks about soulmates, still dreams about meeting his perfect match, but he knows it could take time. He has more important things than romance, and he can’t afford a scandal.

He thinks about it less, and less, but some days all he can cling to is the thought that there is somebody out there for him, somewhere, and even if everybody in the world hates him and even if he never gets out of his rut and falls into obscurity and even if he fails, again and again, as long as he keeps going he’ll meet them.

He meets Leo.

Makoto attends Izumi’s school. He is still cute, and surprisingly tall, and he keeps avoiding Izumi whenever Izumi tries to talk to him. It drives Izumi crazy, but he has more important things to worry about.

(Izumi remembers, and hopes - )

Leo stops coming to school.

Makoto keeps running away.

It drives Izumi crazy.

Makoto’s friends hate Izumi - well, fine, Izumi hates them too.

It gets worse.

Finally, Makoto stops running away.

So Izumi asks, because in his head he still remembers the half-seen glimpse of a wrist, and Makoto looks more nervous than Izumi has ever seen.

Izumi lays out his bargain. “If we don’t match then I’ll never ask you about it again. But -”

They match.

Down to every whirl and line, a perfect copy. It should be the happiest moment of Izumi’s life.

“I don’t want a soulmate. Even if it’s you.”

Izumi understands why they call it heartbreak. His chest hurts, aches, burns. He can’t breathe. He feels like he’ll never be able to breathe properly again, like Makoto stole one of Izumi’s lungs - half of him, taken away.

His parents, at dinner, notice something is wrong. It all comes out at once. His parents are soulmates. Izumi thought, when he met his match, that they’d be happy. That they’d understand. He thought, he hoped -

The next day his mother calls him in sick. She makes him breakfast and tells him not to worry about calories. (Normally they only do this when it’s Izumi’s birthday. Izumi still counts the calories, in his head, adjusts the rest of the week to make up for it.)

Izumi feels like his hands should shake when he types “what do you do when your soulmate doesn’t want you?” into the search bar.

The day after that, when Izumi sees Makoto he remembers. He doesn’t want Izumi. Izumi’s greetings die in his throat. He ignores him and tries to get to class as soon as possible.

People notice.

Arashi asks. Ritsu asks. Nazuna asks.

Even his classmates ask about why he’s suddenly stopped caring about his Yuu-kun.

They all seem to be relieved, like it’s a good thing.

Izumi tells them to fuck off.

Leo doesn’t ask.

Leo never writes songs about soulmates, which is weird, Izumi decides. It’s nice because he thinks if he tried to sing about soulmates and true matches and destiny, well, he’d probably feel like barfing now. But it’s weird.

So he asks him.

Leo doesn’t have a mark. Izumi knows that it happens sometimes, and maybe it should make sense that somebody as weird and unique as Leo would be perfectly whole by himself. Or maybe perfectly broken - nothing he’s ever watched or read or seen seems to be able to decide whether it’s good or bad, whether being markless makes you a hero or a villain.

“You have a mark, right? Let me see it!”

Izumi lets Leo trace the pattern with his finger.

(late at night, his fingers tracing the lines on his wrist, thinking - some day, somebody is going to want me with no strings attached)

You’re not supposed to touch somebody’s mark, unless they’re your soulmate, but Izumi’s soulmate is never going to want to touch his mark. Izumi’s soulmate doesn’t want any part of him. So it’s fine.

“It’s as beautiful as the rest of you. Ah, I love you Sena! You’re always giving me inspiration!”

Izumi’s soulmate doesn’t want him.

But, maybe -


End file.
